second world war

Russian soldiers wearing second world war-era Red Army winter clothing march during a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Nazi blockade of the city Leningrad, now St Petersburg. The German and Finnish siege and blockade of Leningrad was broken on January 18, 1943, but finally lifted a year later, on January 27, 1944.

A woman attends a gathering at the Yama memorial in the centre of Minsk to mark the 70th anniversary of the destruction of the ghetto in the Belarus capital during the second world war, when several hundred thousand Jews were killed

French President François Hollande, right, and his German counterpart Joachim Gauck, left, visit the ruined church at Oradour-sur-Glane in southwest France with 88-year-old Robert Hebras, centre, one of the last survivors of the second world war massacre and destruction of the town, which was carried out by members of the German Waffen SS on June 10, 1944.